Time to Wake Up
by sandra.barret
Summary: Regina brings them all back to Storybrooke from Neverland, but the price lands her in a coma.


"It's not fair!" Henry said, his arms crossed as he hovered over the hospital bed. "She did everything right" He turned to Emma. "She saved us all from Pan."

Emma stepped to his side and put an arm around his shoulder… a few inches higher than it was before this Neverland mess. "I know kid. She's the real savior."

She looked down at Regina. The mayor had been in Storybrooke hospital for a week already, under Dr. Whale's care. A week long coma and man, not a raven hair out of place. She looked peaceful, in a way she never did when awake.

Emma shook herself out of her reverie. "Come on. Visiting hours are over. We can come back in the morning before school."

Henry shrugged off her arm and took Regina's hand. "You've got to wake up, Mom." Then, as if he remembered he wasn't a little kid anymore, he brushed at the tear forming in his eyes and stormed out of the room.

Emma lingered a moment longer. Regina really did look peaceful, beautiful. Maybe she didn't want to come back. Storybrooke wasn't the friendliest place in the world, for ex evil queens anyway. She took a step closer. "Come on Madame Mayor. Your son needs you."

She stood up and followed her son out the door.

#

Another week of visits in the morning and evening were taking a toll on both Emma and Henry. Mary Margaret came by a few times, but never for long, and only to appease Henry. Ruby was good for a few longer visits, but otherwise, the town left Regina to herself.

"Are you sure there's nothing else we can do?" Emma asked when Dr. Whale came in for his morning visit.

"Sorry Sheriff. There's not a lot of science behind coma patients we can rely on. I'm sorry to say, lasting as long as this has, she may not recover."

"That's not true!" Henry shouted. "She has to come back. She deserves a happy ending."

"I know kiddo," Emma said. "We're not giving up hope here. This is Storybrooke. There's always something we could try."

His eyes lit up. "That's it. It's not a physical thing. It's magical."

"Henry." She didn't want him clutching at straws here.

"Don't 'henry' me," he said, standing up so fast he knocked over his chair. "It could be magic. Pan could have cursed her. Or her own magic could have hurt her when she opened the portal back to here."

He rushed out the door as Mary Margaret entered. "What happened?" she asked.

"Same old same old," said Emma. "He's mad. Can you…"

"Yes, I'll make sure he gets to school. I'll see you this evening." Mary Margaret glanced down at Regina. Her expression was blank, as always. Why did she bother showing up at all?

Emma was alone in the room, again. "We have to stop meeting like this," she said, to Regina's still form. "People will talk."

She pulled her chair closer. Talking to Regina daily had become a habit. It almost relaxed her to have someone to open up to, even if it was an unconscious someone. "You saw that I supposed. Okay okay, you HEARD that, then. He's different, you know. Henry came back from Neverland a changed kid. This isn't the only time he acts out. He's skipped school twice in the past week."

A nurse came in to adjust Regina's IV drip. The nurse walked back to the door, then turned to her. "It helps sometimes, to have physical contact. Some reports say they can measure brain wave changes in coma patients when someone touches them." She smiled at Emma, then shut the door.

Physical contact. Emma looked around, then scooted closer. She wiped her palms on her jeans, suddenly conscious of how clammy they felt. Then she took Regina's hand in hers. It felt cool in her palm. She covered it with both her hands and leaned in. "Come back to us, Regina. We need you. Both of us. I can't raise Henry alone. You're his mother. And I… I…miss you."

#

Henry dragged her into Regina's room that evening with a determined look on his face. If things weren't so rough between them right now, she'd have laughed out loud. She recognized that determined expression. It was a mirror of the one used by Regina when she was set on a course that nobody could detract her from.

"Sit down,' He said. He took a chair on the one side of Regina and Emma pulled up a chair on the other side.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Tell me how you woke me up, when I was cursed," he said. "Exactly how you did it?"

"Exactly? Well, Exactly, I cried. Then I bent over you and kissed you."

"Where."

"On the forehead, I think."

He ground his teeth in anger. "Think or know?"

She let out a long sigh, closing her eyes. "Know. I know I kissed you on the forehead and you woke up."

"Right." He stood up, and took a deep breath. "Right."

He bent over Regina, and kissed her forehead. He wasn't crying, not in front of Emma, but she knew he was barely holding it together. She held her breath and waited.

And waited.

He finally straightened up. Then sank back into his chair. "Shit."

"Henry!" She'd never heard him swear before, but he didn't even look at her.

"Why didn't it work? I love my mom, she knows that."

Emma tried hard to hold back her own tears. "Yeah, she knows that. Like I said, it may not be magical."

"No, it is. It has to be. She can't just leave like this?" He glowered at her from his chair, in every way, the cranky teenager he was about to turn into in a year. Then his expression changed. He eyes widened and he said bolt upright. "Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it wasn't my true love kiss that she needs. You remember how Prince Charming woke up Snow White, right?"

"Of course. I grew up with those fairytales too, you know. Even if I didn't grow up WITH them, like you did."

"Right. Then you know what you need to do."

Emma frowned. "I'm not following you, kid."

He sighed, as if we were explaining the obvious to a moron… and she was the moron. "Charming loved Snow White. They were meant to be together. They were each other's true love. So he kissed her, and she woke up."

"Okay, but Regina's true love was Robin Hood, remember? And he returned to the Enchanted Forest." She kept to herself that she'd seen the tears in Regina's eyes when they'd made that choice together. He had a life and responsibility there. And Regina had her own responsibilities to get them all back to Storybrooke.

"And you believe Tinkerbell? Come on. If he was her one true love, then he'd have come here with us."

"It's not that simple."

"Yeah, it is. Because he wasn't her true love. You are."

This time Emma couldn't hold back the bark of laughter. "Okay, now you really are in fantasy land. She hates me. She always has."

Henry grinned, a triumphant grin that made Emma worry just a bit. "So how come the first thing you say is that SHE hates you? Because you don't hate her."

She felt her cheek's flush. The kid was getting too good at this. "So, I don't hate her."

He folded his arms across his chest. "You like her."

She threw up her hands. "Yeah, I like your mom, so what? Like and true love's kiss are miles apart."

"Prove it."

"Prove it?"

He nodded to Regina. "Kiss her. If it's not true love's kiss, then you proved your right and I'm wrong."

Now he was sounding like her. Stubborn as all get out. "Kiss her," she repeated. She eyed up the closed door. "Shit."

His grin widened. "I won't tell anybody."

She took a deep breath and let it out. This was crazy. But if it would satisfy Henry she'd try. She turned to Regina and looked once again on that beautiful face. No frown marred her forehead, no grimace turned down her red lips. Emma eyed those lips as she leaned over. The faint scent of Regina's perfume wrapped itself around her and sent her heartbeat racing. In a near panic that maybe she was about to be proven wrong, she rushed in and pecked Regina on the forehead then pulled back to land in her chair with a thump.

She waited. And waited. Her pulse in her ears. Then waited. Then finally sighed. It didn't work. She wasn't Regina's true love. It felt like a piece of her soul was just ripped out and kicked to the curb. She closed her eyes against that pain. "Sorry, Henry, it's not me."

He was standing over her in a flash, shaking her shoulders. Tears were in his eyes, a mirror of those forming in her own. "You didn't try. Please, you have to try."

"I did! I kissed her. It's just not me!"

"You kissed her like you kissed me. That's not the kind of true love kiss this time. You need to kiss her like Prince Charming kissed Snow White. On the lips!"

Emma turned back to Regina. On the lips. Maybe he was right, maybe she hadn't failed after all. She closed her eyes once more, whispering a silent prayer. Then she scooted onto the edge of Regina's bed and took Regina's hand in hers. "Wake up, this time, please," she whispered.

She leaned in, once again inhaling Regina's perfume. This time she didn't rush, she didn't panic. She lowered her eyes to those red lips and licked her own in anticipation. This had to work. She closed the gap between them and felt the gentle touch of Regina's warm lips on hers. She lost herself in that kiss, feeling a flood of emotion overwhelm her. She stayed lost, until she felt a hand tangle in her hair.

#

Regina's heart beat fluttered. Then fluttered again. She felt a warmth spread from her chest, a heat from a body pressed against her. The heat of warm lips pressed against hers ignited a fire inside her. The kiss deepened, and she could feel a moan rising in her chest. With here eyes still shut, she reached up her free hand and pulled that head closer, tangling her hand in long hair.

Long hair. Long hair?

She blinked her eyes open. It took a few tries as they felt nearly glued shut. The first thing she saw was a blur of long blond hair draped over her. The face that hair belonged to pulled back from her very slowly. She recognized those green eyes. "Emma?" she croaked.

Emma pulled back from her, a mix of emotion flashing across her face too fast for Regina's groggy mind to interpret.

'"Mom!" In an instant, Henry crashed into her, forcing a rush of air out of her lungs.

"Henry." Her voice came out near to normal that time as she wrapped her arms around him. She felt rather than saw Emma step back from them and shot open her eyes. Over Henry's head buried in her shoulder, she looked at Emma. Green eyes locked on hers with a look of pure fear.

Henry pulled back. "I knew it! I knew it! " He rushed around the bed and slammed into Emma. "I knew you were wrong!" Then he ran out of the room, shouting "My Mom's awake!"

Regina blinked back the tears at seeing her son again and recognizing they were all safely back to Storybrooke. She did something right. She turned back to Emma and remembered how she'd woken up. "Hey."

"Hey."

"Is there a reasonable explanation for what just happened?" Not that Regina wanted reasonable, but she couldn't trust the flood of emotion threatening to overwhelm her common sense.

Emma broke eye contact and shuffled her feet. "It was Henry's idea."

"What was Henry's idea?"

Emma looked at her, then glanced away as a flush rose to her cheeks. "That you were under a magical curse. And we all know how to break a curse by now."

"Break a curse," Regina repeated. She lifted a finger to her lips, then dropped her hands. "That's not possible."

Green eyes locked on hers again, angry green eyes. "What's not possible? You don't think that I could have broken whatever curse you were under?"

Regina felt her own anger rising. "That's right, dear. I don't think you have it in you. Savior or not, only a true love's kiss can break any curse."

Emma stepped closer, the anger shared between them practically setting off sparks. "That's right, Madame Mayor. True Love's kiss. And wouldn't it just kill you to find out that after everything we've been through, I AM your true love!"

"And wouldn't it just kill you in return. Because True Love has to be Mutual!" They were shouting by now.

Emma leaned over her. "The first kiss woke you up whether you want to believe it or not. Let's see if the second one kills us both!"

Emma leaned closer and Regina put a hand behind her head and pulled her to close that gap. Hot lips pressed on hers and that fire she felt before ignited again inside her. A moan escapes her lips as she opened them to the insistent pressure of Emma's tongue. Magic swirled around them. Regina could feel it even with her eyes shut.

What she couldn't see was the hospital room door slam open, but she heard it, a split second before she heard Snow's ear-splitting screech.

"Get away from my daughter!"

Emma sat up, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Mary Margaret."

"Emma, what has she done to you? Are you okay?"

Emma turned to look at her mother over her shoulder. "Everything is fine. It's great. I woke Regina up."

Regina tried her very best not to smirk, not matter how much she was going to enjoy this little exchange.

Snow frowned. "Woke her up?"

Regina smiled. "Yes, dear. She woke me up and broke the curse Pan flung at me as the portal was closing." She turned back to Emma who was looking down at her with those magical green eyes. "She woke me with a kiss."

"A kiss," Snow repeated, her eyes darted between Emma and Regina right before they rolled back into her head. Dr. Whale stepped into the room in time to catch Snow before she hit the floor. Too bad, that would have been icing on the cake.

"I'll just get her settled in another room," Dr. Whale said. "And perhaps prescribe a tranquilizer," as he looked back between them, "just in case."

Emma gave Regina a gentle shove. "Make room, here."

Regina sighed and shifted to the side as Emma lay down on the bed next to her. 'Making yourself at home, are you Miss Swan?"

Emma raised herself on her elbow, her free hand playing with the ends of Regina's hair. "True love is like that. First it's the kiss, then it's the moving in." Her eyes opened wide, as if realizing what she just said. "You will, right? move in I mean?"

Regina nodded to the door. "I'm not sure that would be in your mother's best interest. And I don't wish to wake up with your father's sword embedded in my ribcage."

Emma's smile faded. "Oh." She tried to pull away, but Regina wrapped her arms around her.

"There is a rather sizable mansion I reside in, one which already has a bedroom for Henry. And a master bedroom that can easily accommodate two."

Emma's smile returned and she bounced her eyebrows. "Propositioning me already, Madame Mayor?"

Regin rolled her eyes. "I do need time to recuperate, you know. Being cursed takes a bit out of you."

Emma leaned in and pulled her into another heated kiss, this time wrapping a leg across Regina's body. The fire inside her burned out all trace of weakness. When Emma pulled back for a breath, Regina croaked "Take me home, Swan. Now."


End file.
